SAOSIN: BRISBANE CONCERT REVIEW
- Apr 24
- 12 min read
You know you are going to have a good night when you walk past the line of concert goers and see razor blade hair cuts, raccoon tails, more skinny jeans than you can poke a stick at and fish skeleton hair clips. With the 20 year celebration of Saosin's Self-titled Album and the resurgence of Emo
culture, the timing was perfect for Saosin to return to Australia to bring the heat with Senses Fail and Fallweather. Standing at the top balcony on day one of the tour I was prepped and ready to go for three bands I hadn't had the pleasure of seeing perform live before.
With the night starting off with Melbourne Post-Hardcore band Fallweather. Due to circumstances I won't get into here I unfortunately missed several songs between their opening track and the later half of their set, so I will talk through the section of their performance I was able to witness. The set started off a little rough with the microphone not connecting, but once the issue was "I fucking love this city. How are we doing tonight
Brisbane? We're a band called Fallweather from Melbourne. This is Glance." The level of the energy on the stage pushed out into the room, encouraging a circle pit to form mid room, the rest of the decently sized crowd bobbing their heads and swaying to the music. Luckily the start of Another Vice "I know you know how to spin in a fucking circle. I'm going to be very disappointed if I don't see one. Get it spinning, let's go. Don't be shy. Don't be shy. SPIN." Although the pit was only a handful of people, the member were doing their utmost to give the band their energy, turning it into a push-pit as the song continued. "Brisbane, that was fucking incredible. But we are not done. Keep it up, Let's go. Are you fucking with me? What the fuck is up let's go." As we transitioned from Rain to Need there was a well practised change over maneuver to swap a guitar from guitarist Bradley
to vocalist Cullen, as Bradley stepped up to the main mic and Cullen stepped out of the spotlight. "How fucking sick was that. Give it up for Bradley." Cullen said after pretending to throw his guitar into the crowd. "Thank you so much for coming out early. It means the fucking world to us. I mean it. This is Bathe in Blood." Despite microphone issues throughout the set the band persevered, utilising the space to its full capacity as the band roamed around the stage, pulling in the crowd "Brisbane, I have one job for you. Get your fucking hands up. All of you up there too. That's it." As the crowd clapped along, a bouncy push pit formed, bring the set slamming into the final Fallweather song of the evening, Candlelight. "Brisbane, this is our last fucking song. Thank you so much for coming out to see us. It means the entire world. Before we go any further, I want
to give a huge shout-out to Saosin for bringing us out. Give it up for them. I don't know if you guys realise this, but they are my favourite band of all time... This goes out to my beautiful girlfriend, she flew all the way with me to be here." As the crowd swayed with their phone lights out to the ballad the energy switched as the crowd became transfixed upon the stage. "Thank you Brisbane, we have been Fallweather. God I love this city. Enjoy Senses Fail. Enjoy Saosin."
Senses Fail took to the stage with their thirteen song set to an intro I never knew I needed, in the form of You Make My Dreams (Come True) by Daryl Hall & John Oates before jumping straight into You're Cute When You Scream. It seemed to be a running theme at this point for mic issues but just like Fallweather, the band persisted through. Weirdly enough, I
had never actually seen any videos of Senses Fail perform live before so I was curious about the large gap of the stage, until Calling All Cars kicked in and vocalist Buddy began to swing the microphone around with the precision of a fire twirler. Senses Fail hold the aura of a band who have their craft down to an art, falling in step with each other as they jumped, twirled and stomped their way across the stage, utilising every centimetre of the stage (and in Buddy's case, above it) as the set went on. I was saddened by the lack of pit action but the crowd
engaged in other ways, by swaying and bobbing to the beat, throwing their hands around and screaming lyrics back to the band. Drummer Steve was pushed up into the back right hand corner, which would normally make it difficult to grab focus, but I regularly found my gaze being pulled in his direction as his arms flew through the air, crashing on the cymbals with precision and flare. During Bonecrusher, Buddy had the crowd going wild as he cartwheeled across the stage before jumping back up to the stage front and continuing the song. The band took a breather as Buddy took some time to chat to the crowd after six songs of no crowd interaction; definitely making up for it with a three minute long speech. "How are we doing tonight, friends, family? You doing good? Yes. I feel good. I don't know what day it is. It doesn't matter. We were just in New Zealand. You
guys like New Zealand? I know you don't. Of course you don't" Buddy said to answering boo's from the crowd. "I tell you what, they don't like you. They made a joke. They said in Brisbane they have a beer that is four x's and that's because people from Brisbane can't spell beer. You don't have to laugh at it. I didn't think it was funny either but I was like HAHA. Yeah you got 'em. You don't have to laugh at my jokes, I don't wait around, I just keep going. By the end of it we are going to be best friends. Okay, that's my goal. I don't think you
know me. Some of you may not know me, or Senses Fail, maybe you have heard of us, but my name's Buddy. I'm not lying, that's really my name. I was growing out a mullet to present to you guys, I was trying to present as an Aussie, but mother fucker cut my mullet off. My wife said it looked stupid. I said I know that's what they like. Whatever. We're going to keep going. Are you guys excited to be out and about. You're not excited. Look, the only people who are smiling at me and looking at me with love are the most beautiful people in the crowd. You sir,
I'm not talking about the ladies, I'm talking about the big boys. We got any big boys out there tonight? You're a big man. You're a medium man. I'm looking for big! I go big or go home. Now Ma'am no. No. There he is. He barely has a chin but he is beautiful. I'm going to stop talking before everyone starts hating me. We're going to have fun. We're getting ready. We all get to watch Saosin play my favourite record of all time. One of my best friends of all time is in Saosin but I'm not going to tell you which one. This song is off a record called Let It Enfold You and
last time we were here we played the entire thing. So if you know the words, sing along. It's called Choke on This!" Jumping straight back into the performance the crowd danced along to the beat as we hit the halfway point of Senses Fail's set. Watching the band act like silly goofballs with each other out of pure joy had me chuckling with the balcony on-lookers. Throughout the set I was genuinely impressed by the microphone acrobatics as it lifted the showmanship to an entirely different level. As a clap along started led by Buddy the atmosphere
shifted again to something light and playful. "Alright, we've got a got clap going. We feeling good? I'm so excited. Jesus Christ! I'm 42 years old. I know. I know. You thought I was 18. It's fine. Some of you are 18. Some of you look even younger than that. That's so cool. That's one of the things that I have noticed over the last couple of shows... It was our first time here in 2006 with Saosin, a very long time ago. It was on the Taste of Chaos tour. First night of tour. Actually it was one of the last nights. I think we were in Brisbane and we were doing an autograph signing. None of you will remember this, but this is my one story about Brisbane. People were coming through and this girl took her leg off and put it on the table and she said "Sign it. Sign it." and I said absolutely. And
that was weird enough and then as we were walking away from the table, a rogue person came up and punched me in the balls. And I punched him in the face as hard as I could and said "Why did you do that?" and he said "I wanted to meet you." and I will never, ever forget that. Now when I come to Brisbane I walk around like this (Bends his knees and covers his crotch) because I am a little worried that someone is going to come up and sock me in the nuts. And someone was telling me about the magpies and I guess it makes a lot of fucking sense."
"You got magpied." "I got pied." "Pied in the balls." "So that's my story." "I don't want to be in America. If I could live here I would. I would fucking rather. I'm not going to say it because it will end up on the internet but fuck, what's his name? Voldemort. Who's our president again?" "Say it out loud." It was at this point that the crowd started chanting "FUCK TRUMP" and I could not agree with that sentiment more. "I'm not saying it out loud. Fuck him. Thank you so much for tonight. Have fun. Drink Up. Get home safe. Enjoy Saosin." As Senses Fail left the stage it felt like it had not only been a live performance but a lesson in showmanship, crowd connectivity and musical skill.
Now we were at the point that had brought everyone to the Tivoli, Saosin. The energy in the room turned electrific as we switched from singing along to Emo Anthems from My Chemical Romance, A Day To Remember, The Used, Panic! At The Disco and Paramore to the lights dropping and
the crowd cheering hysterically at the stage. With Saosin walking onstage for their mammoth 18 song set we were hyped and ready for the show, the circle pit already forming as the first notes of I Can Tell There Was An Accident Here Earlier rung through the hall. "How many OG Saosin fans do we have in this place right now? Fuck Yes! Here's one for you." they said jumping into Deep Down. With the band layered throughout the stage, three at the front and two at the back, it gave the band space to move around, jumping, throwing their legs around and spinning as they performed. I must say, whoever designed the lighting for their set needs a raise. It was a genuinely beautiful light show, enhancing and capturing the band members "in the perfect light" with an array of colours, patterns and textures. Forgive my terrible pun. "Oh Brisbane (crowd cheers), I cannot
even begin to describe how excited I am for us to be able to play these songs for you tonight. Oh my God! Are you ready? This record means a lot to us, and we hope it means a lot to you. I'm ready to lose my shit tonight. You feel me? I know you guys are right there. If you know these songs fucking sing 'em with everything you've got." It's Far Better to Learn had the crowd chanting on near equal volume to the band themselves, the pit opening into an aggressive push pit of roughly twenty people. "Brisbane get the fuck up." Saosin has this effortless way of
pulling the crowd into the energy from the stage without speaking that is honestly impressive, standing on the edge of the stage and pointing at specific members in the crowd as they belt their hearts out. "Holy shit! This is fucking awesome dude. You guys sound so good. We are what, three songs in, and you guys have BY FAR exceeded my expectations for the night. Oh my God, I'm speechless. If you know this song..." "They do." "This is the first song we ever put out for the record. If you know it, sing it. This song is called Voices." The crowd
hollering themselves horse as the band plunge into the track, smiling as they watched the crowd sing it back to them. "Fuck yeah dude, this is awesome. Sixteen years later, or something like that. I don't think we played this song the last time we came over. I wouldn't remember. It's been too fucking long." "Some dude said he was going to piss his pants during this song." "That was me" a man from the crowd yells, earning the attention of the band. "That was you." "That was him." "This song goes out to you." "To the guy pissing his pants." "Don't pee
your pants though." The song in question, Finding Home. From where I stood I could see the man singing alone with the rest of the crowd, having the time of his life. "So clearly, we are very excited to be here and twice now on this tour Alex has blown through a snare drum head. (Crowd cheers) I don't think I have ever seen him blown through two before. That means our mans is excited. Also, can we just take a second to appreciate how amazing is at drums. The guy is an absolute beast. Smells great too." (The crowd laughed as Alex performs a bad-dum-pst.) "Give it up for our drum tech Jerry... Jerry better be preparing four more drum skins back there. I feel like it is going to be one of those nights. Alright, this song is called Follow and Feel." They are in fact right, throughout the show I was drawn quite often to the back left corner where Alex was positioned, the passion and talent oozing out
of him with every swing of his hand. "This song is called Come Close, so come closer." marking the half way point of the show. "Has anyone seen us before? (Crowd cheers) Did you see us in 2006 on the Taste of Chaos? (Cheers) Did you see us in 2008 Soundwave? (Cheers) What about 2010 Story of the Year? (Cheers) What about 2023? (Cheers) That was a show. We played this song and this is of a record that came out about ten years ago, the longest shadow. It's called The Silver String." As the lights dimmed the crowd began to clap in the
muted energy break, before jumping back into creating a circle pit once more. I must admit that throughout this set the pit area had me at a lost for words at certain points, not behaving like a normal pit. In places of quiet or to calm energy there were fight pits breaking out and at points in the high energy that you would expect there to be a lot of action, the moshers were calm and swaying the music. I have only seen one pit like this before and that was at The Used in August last year for their 25th anniversary tour; so that brings me to the conclusion
that this is just an emo kid thing and it is in fact regular pit behaviour. "All the hits. All the records. Brisbane, are you still feeling alright? How about we make a little return back to self-titled. This song is called I Never Wanted To. This is one of my favourite songs off the record. If you know it, sing it." "Brisbane, I think we need to kick up the energy a little bit. I know you've got it in you. This song is for you guys right there in the middle. I know you want to fucking move. I see it in your eyes. This song is called collapse." At this point the
biggest pit broke out so far, with roughly thirty people in a fight pit, the band taking place at the very edge of the stage, bringing the energy higher. "This has been really cool man. I think the last time I didn't think I would ever come back to Australia so to be able to come back and ah get this reception all of these years later I cannot believe I came back and got this reception. If you saw us before and can remember cool, because I really don't remember a lot of that time and I just want to say thank you for making tonight awesome, because
this I want to fucking remember. (Crowd cheers) Celebrating twenty years with you guys is crazy and I never thought that would happen. We are gonna play the last on the record and then we are going to play your guys two favourites. If you know Some Sense of Security, sing it with me." "Brisbane! This has truly been an amazing night for us. We hope you have had as much fun as we have. You've got one last chance to go nuts. This song is called Seven Years." The crowd shouted along with Saosin as the microphone was passed out to the crowd. As I watched the
people in the pit from my perch above, screaming along with their whole heart, it was a reminder of what music truly means to people. There is nothing like it in the world and this was definitely a stark reminder of that fact. You're Not Alone pulled the show to an end with thunderous cheers from the crowd at the scrambled for guitar pics and set lists, clapping the band as they waved goodbye. Now I know this was a long read, but as the twenty year celebration held such significance I wanted to do it justice; because it isn't every day that you get to celebrate an alternative bands 20+ year career.
Saosin have three shows left on their Australian leg of the tour, unfortunately Sydney has sold out but if you are in Adelaide (26/4) or Perth (28/4) you can still grab your tickets at the link:
For Fans Of: Underoath, Silverstein, Senses Fail and From First To Last
Photos by SamHerbertMedia
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